ARTISTIC MAGAZINES

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L'Illustration (1843-1957)

There are special rewards in store for buyers of the great French illustrated journal, L'Illustration. Articles and stories are provided with copious and lavish graphic components, ranging from special paper stock to high-level continuous-color lithography--not to mention virtuoso designers, ranging from: the likes of A.M. Cassandre, Rene Vincent, Rene Ravo, Jean A. Mercier, Charles Loupot, Sepo (in the glorious full-page ads); to luminaries like Erte, George Barbier, Geo Ham and A.M. Marty in the featured articles.

Dipping into a few instances of this ongoing treat, taking care to touch upon additions from both the Belle Epoque and Art Deco eras, we are struck by, despite an avowal to pay equal tribute to the old and the new, how the works from the 1920s and 1930s send forth a preponderance of modernist, streamline imagery by the very best French graphic designers of the era. These publications offer, to alert clientele, inspired disclosures of a joyousness about often troubled world affairs. Their full menu seeks to disclose how the long-standing French premium upon nuance of sensibility constitutes a fertile resource for facing the future.